Stripped My Front Diff Drain Plug

Just to conclude my personal experience (I'm not OP), I ended up taking it my local fab shop and gave them a fat bolt to weld onto it. He welded a "U" shape at bottom of the new bolt since he couldn't get to the top and he got a wrench and he pushed while I pulled and bam! That baby finally broke loose. Then I replaced it with a new one.

It only took about 15min and he charged me as much cash as I had in my pocket which was $23 which was super nice of him. Idk if it'd be like this at other fab shops since I live in a small town but it might be worth a shot.

 

Happened to me on my first gen, was able to notch the plug with a dremel so I could put a flat head screwdriver against it, eventually tapped it loose

 

hammer and chisel will get it loose. we use that trick at work all the time.

 

I put mine back in finger tight. Comes right out.

 

I did that with my rear diff plug by accident once and nearly lost all my gear oil lol.

I think the torque spec on the front and rear diff drain plugs is only 29ft/lbs so it's not very tight at all, I think most people over tighten the plugs thinking they require more torque than what is necessary. Then they have trouble getting them off when the time comes to change the oil out

 

Drain plug for front diff is 48 ft/lbs
Fill plug is 29 ft/lbs

 

I changed my drain /fill plugs over to all magnetic style when i first purchased my Tacoma ( 6-2013)

Check out Dimple Magnetic Drain plugs web site .

They are expensive but they work.

Front diff. plug now has a proper wrench fitting to remove th plug that has a strong magnet.

Rear diff had a magnetic drain plug from the factory but i moved it to the transfer case as it didn't have a magnetic plug

Engine has a magnetic drain plug and its so strong that you have to use some effort to remove it as it wants to stay attached to the pan as take it out.

They also have a few video to show the strength of the magnets

TOMB